Totsuzen
by A Guy Named Goo
Summary: After an encounter with a strange spell, Ban and Himiko have found themsevles radically changed. Now how can they get back their former selves? (Eventual Ginji x Ban, Himiko x Natsumi, one sided Himiko x Hevn) CHAPTER TWO NOW UP!
1. Chapter One

Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own Get Backers. I own Himiko! Well, a plushie of her. But I do own the villains! (Why rip off the original villains when I can make up my own?) And the only thing I can say to justify this fic: blame MSTing a badfic, too much Pocky, and my second in command Mars for it.

Translation: I don't advocate fangirl Japanese, but the title of this fic comes from a song. "Totsuzen" means "Suddenly" and it's by Field of View. Kinda hard to find their stuff, but they're the most sickeningly sweet male J-pop band I've ever heard. And, God help me, I love them.

**Totsuzen**

**By A Girl Named Goo**

**Blame This On**** Dedicated to Mars, Tam, and Chrys. Because you're all insane and you pushed me over the edge and forced me to write this. **

"Don't stand in our way, Himiko!" Ban warned, pulling the polished surface of the mirror he was holding to his chest and staring down the girl in question. "You know this is business."

"Right. And I need to transport that mirror," Himiko told him smoothly. The air was still, ideal for the use of the perfumes that she specialized in. But not yet. She knew Ban had a trick or two up his sleeve. Well, so did she

Ginji watched the exchange, rubbing the back of his head and wondering what to do. Of course he understood that Himiko was a transporter and Ban was a retriever. As such they were going to come up on opposite sides from time to time. And Ginji knew that he should support his partner in this one. But still, they _were _technically going to the same place. Wouldn't they all still get paid if Ban just handed over the mirror to Himiko and let her deliver it?

"Ban-chan, can't we take Himiko-chan with us? We're going to the same place" he finally suggested. Blue and violet eyes both rounded on him as he said it, causing him to shrink to his tare form. _Note to self: do not get involved in a fight between Ban-chan and Himiko-chan_

"She'll take all our money!" Ban finally offered as an explanation, turning his eyes back to the diminutive transporter. "She may look cute and innocent but when it comes to a job she's a glory hog!"

"Your greed is making you stupid!" Himiko accused, taking a bottle from her belt. "I'm a _professional_. I have to escort that mirror to it's final destination. It's not about money. And if you'll just come with me-"

She was cut off as the wind suddenly picked up, scattering leaves andwhat was this? Himiko held out her hand to catch something that seemed to be caught in the breeze. "Someone folded a hundred yen into an origami tulip"

This caught Ban's attention. He held out his hand to catch another similar object caught in the breeze. "This one is in the shape of a crane"

Ginji was chasing several star-shaped yen notes across the ground, gathering them against him. "But who would fold yen into origami and throw it into the air? Is there some kind of festival going on somewhere?"

"Maybe we should leave this alone. No one just throws away money unless it's dirty or a trap," Himiko said, releasing the folded yen note tulip in her fingers. Ban caught it easily, which made Himiko realize the wind was in her favor, and he was distracted by money

Himiko leapt over to him and used the flame scent just as the wind shifted. A few of the folded yen notes ignited, causing Ban to drop them.

"Dammit, Himiko, that's good money!" Ban cried out, still catching the precious yen notes and pressing them against him, crushing the delicate origami figures. As he gathered the money against him there was a loud crashing noise. Both Himiko and Ginji stopped gathering the yen notes (although Himiko had already decided not to bother with them, she was still trying to see if there was anything else odd about them) and turned to face him. The shiny mirror was now several shiny shards on the ground.

"Ban-chan, that's seven years bad luck" Ginji muttered.

Himiko's face contorted into a rather interesting expression. "You idiot! I was supposed to transport that in one piece!" she screamed at him. Ban at least had the courtesy to look embarrassed and drop a few of the squished origami yen.

"Hey, I have problems, too! We promised to get that mirror back in one piece!" Ban pointed out. Suddenly, all the origami slipped from his grip and he collapsed into a heap on the ground.

"Ban-chan!" Ginji cried, running toward Ban's lifeless body. Himiko also began to approach, but she, too, crumpled into a heap close by. Ginji looked between his fallen friends, panic-stricken. "Ban-chan! Himiko-chan!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"And they're down!" a far too cheerful voice exclaimed gleefully, followed by a giggle. A pair of dark gray eyes concealed by sunglasses stood next to the giggling figure on top of a wall, overlooking the confrontation in the park. The darker of the pair was carefully folding another hundred yen note into a delicate star, his long fingers extending from fingerless black leather gloves.

The shorter of the two had very pale pink hair, shoulder-length but curling inward in a bell-like fashion. A cute bob. Bright pink eyes were covered by rose-colored glasses (the symbolism escaped no one present) that seemed to take up most of the delicate, pale face. He was wearing elbow-length fingerless white lace gloves, and a sleeveless knee-length white trench coat that was zipped to obscure everything but neat white boots and tight white leggings. The coat was cinched in the middle with a white belt with a pink heart-shaped buckle, giving him the appearance of a slight feminine curvature. On his exposed right shoulder, one could see an intricate black pattern that disappeared into the lace of the glove and the leather of the jacket, making how far the complicated tattoo extended impossible to determine. It was nearly impossible to tell that this seeming caricature of femininity was a man well into his twenties. He could have passed for a fourteen or fifteen year old girl. And that's what made him all the more disturbing to his partner.

"Stop it, Lace," the darker one ordered. Although Lace seemed to have the light, feminine voice that matched his pixie-ish features, the other's voice was quite deep, betraying quickly that the one with the angular, feminine face and long black hair was male as well. He wore a black trench coat, closed to obscure the rest of his outfit, and he dug into his pocket to produce a mint green piece of paper, folding it into a tulip and releasing it into the wind. "We have a job to do."

"Oniisan, why didn't the other one go down?" Lace asked, looking up at Leather with unnervingly wide eyes. They seemed to be missing something crucial, something Leather could never place.

"Because the spell and the potion only work for those with witch's blood. Give the tulip a few seconds to do it's job and we can take it and go."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Down below, Ginji didn't notice the conversing figures or the tulip that landed square between his fallen companions' heads. He probably should have, though, or he would have noticed the twin streams leading from their heads, as sparkling and airy as one of Himiko's scents. One was pale pink and the other was light blue, and they lead directly into the paper bell

"Ban-chan! Himiko-chan! Get up!" Ginji ordered, panicking slightly. Suddenly, he sprang to his feet, gasping and backing up a step

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ban's head ached. That was the first thing that registered in his mind as he began to regain consciousness. Most people don't assume a person is conscious until their eyes are open and they are looking at the world, but there is actually a moment when your mind switches on and you can think. That's when it registers you should open your eyes. When you've been knocked out as often as Ban and his compatriots have you become intimately familiar with the various levels of consciousness and unconsciousness, perhaps Ban more than the others because of his workings with dreams, yet another level of consciousness.

As his mind switched on, recovering painfully from it's unscheduled and unwanted slumber, Ban didn't immediately will his eyes open. For some reason that seemed like a really bad idea. He could feel his glasses on his face, pressed all the way up to cover his eyes completely from his horizontally inclined angle, so the light wouldn't be too much of a problem. Just an instinct told him if he opened his eyes now he wouldn't like what he saw, and with his head aching so badly he didn't want to aggravate his condition any further by getting angry or upset.

But the next stage of consciousness was recollection, and his memories of the events leading up to his current painful condition seemed to play as if a film had been loaded into a film projector in his mind. He and Ginji had taken a job getting back an ancient and sacred mirror. After retrieving it from a very old looking compound (and being chased by the inhabitants, their security officers, and their vicious guard dogs, which Ban had used his Jagan on to halt them in their tracks), they had run into Himiko, who had demanded they hand over the mirror for transport. Then things got messy.

Ban didn't remember how they ended up in the park. He just remembered Himiko had left her motorcycle behind to give chase on foot, and after sliding into alleys and buildings had failed to shake her Ban had had the idea to lead her into an open area to confront her and maybe use his Jagan again. At the time he'd been under the impression that she worked for the opposition, but finding out they were theoretically on the same team had only served to make the retriever, who had been unemployed for far too long and didn't want to share his earnings from this job, even angrier. And that's when the origami money began to appear...

After that, the movie seemed to stop. He couldn't even remember anything after taking that first origami crane, although he was certain he had been conscious for at least a few moments after that. All he remembered was feeling lightheaded and collapsing to the ground.

_Ginji's probably worried sick,_ Ban thought. His head still ached, if not moreso due to the fact that he was trying to recollect the events that lead to his current state and was failing miserably. But with that rationalization, he knew that he had no choice but to open his eyes and grudgingly rejoin the world of the living.

His eyes finally opened, a tiny bit at first. The purple filter was unnecessary, as the room he was currently in was dim anyway. It was vaguely familiar, but it was too hard to recall where exactly he was. It was easier just to accept that it was recognizable and therefore most likely friendly.

"Ban-chan!" Ginji's worried voice cut through the darkness, and a concerned face hovered over his. "Ban-chan, you're awake!"

"Mmm..." Ban said, but it felt odd in his throat, sounded odd in his ears. He sat up slowly, looking around. "Ginji, where the hell- what the hell happened to my voice?!" Ban's hands flew to his throat. 

"C-calm down, Ban-chan," Ginji tried weakly, backing up a step as if in anticipation of his partner lashing out at him. "I mean...the important thing is you're all right, right?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Ban howled. His voice was higher now. Feminine. "What the hell happened to me?!"

"I'm not entirely sure-"

Ban stood up, feeling a disconcerting bounce. He looked down to realize the front of his shirt was straining to hold back-

"What the hell happened?!" Ban asked again, groping his own chest. Definitely real.

Ginji stepped back again, and Ban realized there was a mirror next to his head. He suddenly realized where he was: one of the rooms in the back of the Honky Tonk, probably where Paul slept. Ban ran over to the mirror, Ginji quickly ducking out of the way to make sure there was as much distance between them as possible.

"You and Himiko-chan just passed out while you were looking at the money. I got you here as fast as I could..."

Ban would have objected to him driving, or him carrying him through the Honky Tonk in this condition, but he had much more important things to worry about. He finally stood in front of the mirror, running his fingers over his face. It was definitely feminine now, his usually narrow blue eyes in an alluring, exotic shape. His cheekbones were high and finely sculpted, his lips a bit...poutier? His usually spiked hair had been smoothed down, just slightly longer than it was when his hair was down anyway. His nose must have changed size or shape somehow, because every time he tried to move his sunglasses to their proper place balanced on his nose they threatened to fall off of his face entirely.

Ban slowly backed away. There was that full bosom (karma for his penchant for groping, perhaps?), making both of his shirts very uncomfortable to wear. His jeans were also uncomfortable. They usually clung to his already slender frame in a way that made a belt mostly unnecessary, but now the waistband didn't even touch his skin, while his hips felt painfully constricted by the denim.

Ban was at the back of the room now, pressed against the door. There was a cot near the bed, and Himiko was still unconscious on it, a blanket pulled up to her chin. Funny, no one had bothered to cover him up. He was suddenly very angry. Had they liked what they'd seen? Although he had to admit, if he were looking at someone who looked like his current form, he would have enjoyed it as well...

"What about her?" Ban asked, patting down his shirt (and wincing whenever he felt an alien curve). He finally located his cigarettes and lighter, lighting one and inhaling deeply. That was a little better, at least. He sat down on the bed again, instinctively spreading his legs in the way he would have if he still had a masculine body, but that just made his already uncomfortable clothing more constrictive.

"You...shouldn't sit like that," Ginji advised cautiously and praying Ban didn't ask why. He wasn't going to say "that's not ladylike" to his very angry best friend, who was supposed to be male. But fortunately for Ginji, Ban realized what he meant and brought his legs back together. That settled, Ginji averted his attention to Himiko. "Do you mean did she change?"

"What the hell do you think I mean?" Ban snapped. He took another drag from his cigarette, staring at the girl.

Ginji, instead of speaking, walked over to the cot and lifted up the blanket. At first Ban didn't see any difference. Her face looked the same, she was the same height, and her hair was still the same length. But he finally noticed that her shirt was conspicuously flat, slightly wrinkled in the area that used to be filled out. Ginji sighed and dropped the blanket.

"But why just us? You touched that money, too!" Ban howled, standing up and walking over to Himiko. "Come on, get up!"

"Ban-chan, leave her alone!" Ginji cried. "And I don't know why I didn't change!"

Himiko twitched as Ban shook her, her eyes finally opening. "Hey, what gives?" she protested, before gasping, her hands flying to her throat in a gesture similar to Ban's initial reaction. Although her voice wasn't very deep, it was definitely that of a boy. She began to look at her surroundings frantically. "What the hell happened here?!"

"I don't know!" Ban shouted back, really not in the mood to fill her in on his conversation with Ginji. "We touched that money and then we passed out and we woke up like this!"

"Ban?" Himiko asked, staring at the speaker in disbelief. Then she looked at Ginji. "Why didn't you-"

"I don't know!" Ginji cried out, sounding rather hopeless. All he knew was this room was about the last place in the world he wanted to be at the moment.

Suddenly a voice broke through the loud, panicked, angry conversation, following a knock that they must not have heard. "Ginji-kun, I've got those clothes you asked for!"

Both Ban and Himiko turned to glare at Ginji, who made a quick dart to the door and out of the room, leaving a very bewildered Hevn on the other side wondering what was going on. She looked into the room to see Ban and Himiko standing side by side, one an attractive young woman and the other a rather cute teenage boy. And not the ones who were supposed to have those descriptions. "Oh my..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Lace was leaning against the wall inside a traditional pagoda-style home, examining his fingernails and looking more mature than he had all evening. Through the shoji screen he could hear strains of conversation between Leather and an unidentified female. They probably didn't even know he was standing there.

"So you got it?"

"Here."

Lace turned around to see something shadowy drop to the floor. The green tulip, he was certain. It had been violet when they'd retrieved it, and the "lesser" henchman had pretended to be in awe of his partner's paper magic abilities again when he'd seen it.

"This is really for your own good as well, Makoto." Lace grinned slightly. Leather didn't know that Lace knew his real name. Lace was just waiting for the right time to spring it on him.

"I never asked you to do anything on my behalf."

The shadows shifted, and Lace knew that Leather was leaving the room.

"The femininity of a female witch...the masculinity of a male witch...those are hard to come by. I am truly pleased."

"And I'm glad."

The voice was too close to the door. Lace darted quickly and quietly around a corner, then walked toward the door again, pretending to have just arrived.

"So did we do good, Leather?" Lace asked, smiling brightly and making his voice high and feminine.

Leather glared down at his partner. "Whatever." And with that, he walked off.

Lace just grinned and leaned against the wall again, letting his "little girl" façade fall away once more.

**End of Chapter One**


	2. Chapter Two

Disclaimer: Hasn't changed since last chapter.

Totsuzen: Chapter Two

By A Girl Named Goo

"Hmm...if we could just..."

"Hevn!"

Hevn backed away from Ban, who held his (her?) shirt closed, glaring at her. As his glasses had refused to stay in their proper place, he'd had to forgo them. At least, until he could find a pair with a smaller nosepiece that would stay on the bridge of his nose.

Hevn sighed, looking him up and down. "Honestly, Ban-kun, this isn't a big deal. That's nothing I don't see every day in the mirror."

"Obviously!" Ban snapped back. "I just don't feel like getting manhandled by you!"

"How the hell am I supposed to help dress you from the other side of the room?!" Hevn shot back.

Ban was wearing a pair of tight jeans from Hevn's closet (obviously she hadn't worn them in quite a while, if she ever had, judging from the fact that they were stiff and hardly broken in), and his own white shirt. Unfortunately, Hevn's search for a bra had proven fruitless, so she had promised to show him one of her many fashion tricks that negated the need for one. That is, if he'd let her touch him.

"You can just tell me," Ban told her, not releasing his shirt. Hevn sighed and strode up to him, yanking his arms down (his grip on his shirt was surprisingly loose) and seized the tails at the bottom. Ban met her eyes, but not in a way that suggested he was going to use his Jagan to get her to back away. "Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean I've lost my snake bite."

"I didn't say you did," Hevn muttered, holding the shirt open for a moment before tying the bottom tails together. There. Breasts covered and supported. And rather fashionably so, Hevn decided, as she moved around behind Ban and began to pin up the back of his shirt. "This is a good look."

"Nice to know I make a good dressmaker's dummy," Ban shot back, unamused but at least glad for the support. "If you like it so much, use it for yourself."

Hevn accidentally-on-purpose jabbed a pin into his lower back. "I'm doing you a favor. Now shut up so I can work." Although she had to admit: if Ban were still her male client, she wouldn't talk to him like this. Then again, it was easier to charm male Ban into doing what she wanted. Female Ban needed to be forced every step of the way.

Most of Ban's midriff was exposed, and as the jeans rode low on his hips it left nothing to the imagination in the way of his midsection. Only the bare minimum of his torso was covered: his new breasts, his shoulders, and part of his back. Hevn stepped away, walking around him and examining her handiwork. "Hmm...not bad. Not bad at all."

Ban quirked an eyebrow skeptically, but walked over to the medicine cabinet, backing away slowly to examine himself. At first he looked appreciative, but that look melted away. "I look like a tramp."

"This is the last time I do you a favor," Hevn said, turning to leave the room.

"I guess I should have known better than to let you dress me if I wanted to be even half-way demure," Ban snapped back, sitting down heavily on the bed. He hadn't left the back room of the Honky Tonk since he'd woken up. After some coaxing just to get him near the door, Ginji had agreed to take Himiko over to the restroom so she could dress.

"What are you implying?" Hevn asked, grabbing Ban's arm only to have it wrenched from her hand.

"I mean you dress like a streetwalker," Ban said bluntly. "And thanks to you, I'm dressed like one, too!"

"Honestly, you try to do a favor for someone..." Hevn muttered, opening the door and stepping out. Ginji was sitting in a booth, and Paul was leaning against the wall behind the counter, reading his newspaper. The latter looked remarkably unruffled despite the recent turn of events. Ginji looked like he could use a drink.

"Is he dressed?" Ginji asked weakly.

Hevn made a "hmph" sound and walked out of the café. Ban stuck his head out into the open area for a moment, then pulled it back into the room and slammed the door.

"Ban-chan!" Ginji cried, running over to the door. "We can't find a way to get you back to normal if you or Himiko-chan won't come out!"

"I don't care! I'm not coming out!" Ban shouted from the other side. It sounded suspiciously like he was pouting.

Paul chuckled slightly, lowering his newspaper momentarily. "Hm...never thought I'd see the day when Midou Ban would rather stay locked in a room pouting than getting back something important that was taken from himself." He made a big show of putting the newspaper on the counter and taking a familiar coffee mug out from where he kept the others. "I guess I can get rid of this cup, if the owner can't live up to the claim on it..."

The door to the back room burst open, nearly flying off it's hinges. Ban stomped out (and thanked whatever deities existed that Hevn had supplied him with tennis shoes. She had threatened to bring him heels), walking up to the counter and grabbing the cup with the glued-on handle and familiar boastful claim. "I'm not just going to stand around, dammit! The Get Backers will get back my manhood and Himiko's womanhood!" He brought the cup crashing down onto the counter. The handle broke off, and Ban just looked at it for a moment. Paul sighed and went to find the glue.

"Himiko-chan, did you hear that?" Ginji asked. He walked over to the door when he got no response and knocked on it. "Himiko-chan?"

"Just a minute!" Himiko snapped. Everyone in the café sweatdropped.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Leather looked over the campus of the all-girl school for a moment. Lace was in there. That fact gave him chills. Sighing, he leaned against the gates and pushed his eyeglasses up the bridge of his nose. His hair was in a ponytail, and he was wearing a white button-up shirt and black dress pants. Just another teacher. Nothing to see here, move along.

Tossing another glance at the campus, he reached into the pocket of his dress pants and pulled out a square of red paper, using the wall that surrounded the school to smooth it out. He folded a small, neat star and rolled it through the gates. The star tumbled merrily, then shot up into the air like a flare, making it about three meters before it popped like a firework. If that didn't get Lace's attention, he was leaving, orders be damned.

"Hi!"

Leather must have jumped a foot into the air. He turned around and glared at Lace, standing before him wearing a green schoolgirl uniform. He was sans sunglasses, making the fact that there was something odd about his eyes that Leather couldn't quite place all the more obvious.

"Don't do that!" Leather cried out, reaching into his pocket and taking out a white piece of paper.

"Aww, I scared oniisan! I'm sorry!" Lace said, with genuine apology in his voice. But the effect was ruined as he dissolved into giggles.

"Don't call me that! You're older than me, dammit. That's just creepy," Leather ordered. He was folding a little bird. "Did you get it?"

"No," Lace said.

Leather stopped folding the paper. "What do you mean 'no'?"

"Iie. No. Non. Nyet. Nein," Lace prattled off, his cute little girl façade slipping slightly in his own annoyance. He picked it back up almost immediately. "I went in and I saw it but I couldn't get it. So I am going to get it after school." He beamed. "It's lunchtime now!"

Leather put his forehead into his hand and sighed. "If you don't get that in seventy-two hours the male and female essences will fade and the spell will never work. We'll have to leave the country to find another male and female witch, and I highly doubt Ishida-sama will give us another chance."

Lace shrugged. "I'm trying. I'll get it."

With that, he turned on his heel and walked away. Leather put his forehead on the cool stone, unfolded the bird in his hand, and stuck the paper into his pocket. As soon as he had regained his composure he opened the gate and stepped onto the campus, although it would be easier for him to work if he didn't have to think about Lace sitting with a group of ninth grade girls pretending he didn't know algebra…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

In the three years since Ban had acquired his beloved car, he had never had to adjust the seat after the first time. He was certain if he did he'd never find that "sweet spot" that was ideal for hitting all of the various controls and yet comfortable enough for him to lean back and light a cigarette if he wanted to. It had taken him several tries to find his "sweet spot", something he was mumbling about as he angrily slid the seat forward and backward, trying to find some semblance of it for his female body.

"If these damn things weren't in the way…" he growled, trying to move said unwanted accoutrements to one side only to have them bounce back into their original place. The shirt also threatened to come open, so he left them alone, sliding the seat all the way back.

"Hey, watch it!" Himiko cried from the back seat as the driver's seat collided with her knees. She couldn't wear her usual spandex (comfortable and practical as it was for work), and had settled on black jeans, a loose white T-shirt, and a black jacket. She'd also put on a baseball cap and a bandage over the star on her face, claiming she didn't want anyone to recognize her like this.

Himiko reflected on that for a moment. Ban had told her that no one could tell the difference, anyway. She'd raised her hand to slap him, but Ginji said that it wasn't good for boys to hit girls. Then they had both turned and hit him. Ginji was now remarkably quiet in his place in the passenger seat, as if afraid anything he said would set his two volatile companions off. And he was probably right.

Ban finally stopped adjusting the seat, although the way he fidgeted suggested this wasn't a real "sweet spot" for him. He pulled the little car out into traffic, pausing at a stop light just a few metres away.

"Where are we going, Ban-chan?" Ginji asked rather meekly. He wasn't entirely sure what would or wouldn't set off his friends, and he was taking a gamble with just that question.

"I don't know," Ban said, taking his pack of cigarettes out of the glove compartment and lighting one. He nearly groped Ginji reaching over, and his best friend shrank back from the touch. "Probably to the park." He threw his lighter into the glove compartment with the cigarettes and slammed it shut, taking his frustration out on the little car. Better it than Ginji, anyway. It was bad enough he couldn't even take his usual place behind the wheel, but the outfit Hevn had fashioned for him had left no pockets deep enough for his nicotine fix.

"The park? Why there?" Himiko asked. She was fidgeting in the back seat, as if she couldn't get comfortable. Ginji watched this for a few moments in the rear view mirror, then turned his attention to the window. Some small part of him wished that he had changed as well, simply because the fact that he hadn't made him an easy target for their rage.

Ban shrugged. "Do you have any other ideas? That's where it happened. Maybe we can get find a clue." Ban turned his head to Ginji. "Say, do you have any of that money from last night?"

"Huh?" Ginji asked. He'd been staring out the window to keep from having to face his companions, and when he whirled around he blushed when he realized he had to look _up_ to see Ban's annoyed face. How had his gaze dropped so low, anyway? "Yeah, a few." Ginji began to dig through his pockets. It was a good thing that in his panic he forgot to throw out the seemingly enchanted yen notes or hadn't accidentally used them to buy something. He finally came up successful, offering Ban three star-shaped one hundred yen notes.

"I'm not touching them again," Ban said, pulling out into traffic. "Last time Himiko and I did we were knocked out. There's probably some kind of spell on them that you're immune to for whatever reason."

"Spell?" Ginji asked. He unfolded one of the notes and began to look it over. Tiny black markings were on the corner of it, and he had to turn it sideways to look at them. They seemed incorrect unless seen vertically, although Ginji could neither read them nor recognize the language. "Here's something."

Ban pulled over, not touching the bill but looking at it curiously. He was quiet for a long time, and Himiko leaned forward to look as well. "What is it?" she finally asked, reaching out to touch it. Ban grabbed her hand to keep her from doing so. Something about being male seemed to have removed a good portion of her common sense.

"It's a spell," Ban nearly growled. "Probably a sleeping spell. Either you're immune to spells, Ginji- and I am almost certain you aren't- or the spell on that was individualized to us. Someone would have to be really good to pull that off, though, unless it zeroed in a certain trait…" Ban trailed off, his eyes fixed on the road.

"What is it, Ban-chan?" Ginji asked. Ban finally took the note, not passing out as he grabbed it.

"Son of a bitch…" he muttered, looking over the entire note. "It's a spell for witches. Someone knew one or both of us had witch blood."

Himiko snatched the note, although she didn't know what she was looking for. "What? So why doesn't the spell work anymore? Did they take our witch blood, too, or something?"

Ban shook his head, resting his forehead on the steering wheel. "The first fold to make the yen square concealed the unactivated spell. The spell was made by a magician or a priest, not a witch."

"What's the difference, though?" Himiko asked, looking over the yen note some more. She folded over the spell and realized the yen was now a perfect square, ideal for origami.

Ban shook his head, then began to pull the car back out into traffic. "Magicians steal magic. Real magicians do, anyway. They usually have one spell that they can use and that helps them steal other spells. But their written spells, which are the most powerful next to potions, can't be exposed to daylight or they are deactivated. Priests rely on faith magic, which varies depending on their religion. Ofuda and other Shinto written spells only work once, and some of the trickier ones need to be concealed to work." He was suddenly very glad he'd listened to what his grandmother and Maria had had to say about various types of magic.

"So they _did_ take your witch's blood?" Ginji asked, unfolding another of the yen notes. Sure enough, another spell was written on it.

Ban shook his head. "I don't know. That wouldn't change our sexes, and I don't think you can take that someone is a witch. Just take the abilities that come from it. Magicians do some pretty weird things, but to change someone's physical being you need a potion. Neither magicians nor priests can make potions."

Ban turned the car around suddenly in an illegal U-turn. Several people began to honk, and Ginji and Himiko gripped the "oh shit" handles for dear life.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Himiko shrieked after they were in the other lane.

"We are going to see Maria," Ban said. "She will probably know what kind of magic this is." Although he was loathe to let his former guardian see him in this form. She already liked to tease him about his past encounters with witchcraft and other forms of magic, not to mention just tease him in general. He'd never hear the end of this.

Sirens began to wail behind them, and all three people in the car sweatdropped. "Right after I get this traffic ticket…" Ban added.

The police officer approached the vehicle with the pad of tickets out already, looking in the driver's seat. "Women have no clue how to drive…" her muttered.

Ginji had to physically restrain Ban to prevent him getting arrested for assaulting a police officer.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Natsumi sighed and looked up at the clock. She was sitting in history class, the last class of the day, and she was anxious to get out of the school and get to work. Between the flares that had erupted on the quad and the strange new girl who had practically begged to hang out with her after class, she wanted to be somewhere…well, not normal, but normal enough for her.

Many of the girls were staring at the teacher, giving him their undivided attention although it wasn't his lesson on feudal Japan that held their interest. Occasionally they would sigh dreamily, and behind her Natsumi heard one girl whisper to another "I wonder if Yoshimiya-sensei would let me earn some 'extra credit'", causing both girls to collapse into a fit of giggles.

Their history teacher _was_ attractive. He was tall and thin, pale with waist-length straight black hair swept into a ponytail and keen dark gray eyes that were protected by his glasses. His face was angular, suggesting he was of some noble line, but he didn't carry himself like an aristocrat. Far from it: Natsumi had had him as her history teacher for two years now, and he always struck her as being…neurotic. He had a nervous habit of folding the squares of paper he kept in his desk into little origami figures that the other girls collected like prizes, even if it meant taking them out of the trash or off his desk, and often glanced either over his shoulder or toward the door. When someone said something that he apparently disliked he would lose his temper easily. For Natsumi, no matter how lovely he was he just wasn't crush-worthy.

"So as the main noble families grew to be too large, the heads of the family would often parcel out lands on their estates to start a new sub-family, which still maintained the favor of the shogun and the emperor and still benefited from the main family while still seeming independent. Today many of these smaller families have become their own notable family lines," Yoshimiya explained.

The bell rang, and Natsumi closed the notebook she was taking notes in. She would have stood up, but with all the girls still watching the teacher dreamily it would have been apparent she was in a hurry to leave. Honestly, did no one else see or feel how strange this man was? Could a pretty face and deep voice really cause this kind of shallow hypnotic effect on them?

"Go over pages two hundred to two-fifty in your text and try to find at least one example of a noble family that originated from another noble family. The library should have information about that," Yoshimiya announced. "And you're dismissed."

As the students filed out, the delicate white paper figures disappeared with the girls. Although there was a little frog left on the desk as she passed, Natsumi didn't take it. The girl behind her greedily snatched it and pushed past her to leave the classroom. There was something seriously unnerving about this teacher…

****

End of Chapter Two


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